Tony Hawk's Proving Ground - NDS - Preview 2

The last Tony Hawk game on the DS was Tony Hawk’s
Downhill Jam, a variation of the downhill racing spin-off on the Wii. The game
presented some fun and fast gameplay, as well as an awesome multiplayer
component. The next DS iteration will do things a bit more conservatively, going
back to the trick-based skating popularized by the series in the past. Tony
Hawk’s Proving Ground on the DS is a variant of the upcoming console game,
offering the kind of gameplay last featured in American Sk8land a couple of
years ago, albeit with some new features to keep it in line with its console big
brother.

The gameplay is not wholly different from
American Sk8land, as you’ll still progress through different stages completing
missions. The big difference is that the missions in Proving Ground are divided
into three difficulty levels, that you’ll be able to complete and unlock
depending on how well you do while performing the task.

The freak-out move has returned and is touch
screen based, allowing you to touch quickly moving gauges on the screen at the
right time to max them out and get the most points tacked on to the end of
whatever combo you happened to be doing when you bit it.

Much like Downhill Jam last year, Proving Ground
will have a robust online component, allowing you to play through a host of
online modes like the Price is Wrong and Balloon Burst through local Ad-hoc, as
well as a full online mode with a voice chat option as was featured in its
predecessor.

Graphically, the game’s aesthetic is tweaked from
previous iterations on the DS. Whereas both American Sk8land and Downhill Jam
had very stylized cel-shaded looks to them, Proving Ground has a more realistic
look to it. Like its predecessors though, it will run at a fluid 60 frames per
second.

Proving Ground on the DS will offer some nice
features and online play that fans on the go might like to check out. Look for
it to ship next month.